What Happened This Day In History

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Today in History
August 19

1493 Maximilian succeeds his father Frederick III as Holy Roman Emperor.
1587 Sigismund III is chosen to be the king of Poland.
1692 Five women are hanged in Salem, Massachusetts after being convicted of the crime of witchcraft. Fourteen more people are executed that year and 150 others are imprisoned.
1772 Gustavus III of Sweden eliminates the rule of parties and establishes an absolute monarchy.
1779 Americans under Major Henry Lee take the British garrison at Paulus Hook, New Jersey.
1812 The USS Constitution earns the nickname "Old Ironsides" during the battle off Nova Scotia that saw her defeat the HMS Guerriere.
1914 The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) lands in France.
1934 38 million Germans vote to make Adolf Hitler the official successor to President von Hindenburg.
1936 Spanish poet Frederico Garcia Lorca is shot by Franco's troops after being forced to dig his own grave.
1942 A raid on Dieppe, France by British and Canadian commandos is repulsed by the German Army.
1944 In an effort to prevent a communist uprising in Paris, Charles DeGualle begins attacking German forces all around the city.
1950 Edith Sampson becomes the first African-American representative to the United Nations.
1957 The first balloon flight to exceed 100,000 feet takes off from Crosby, Minnesota.
1965 US forces destroy a Viet Cong stronghold near Van Tuong, in South Vietnam.
1974 US Ambassador to Cyrus Rodger P. Davies assassinated by a sniper of Greek Cypriot paramilitary group EOKA-B during a demonstration outside the embassy in Nicosia.
1976 Gerald R Ford, who had become President of the United States after Richard Nixon resigned, wins Republican Party's presidential nomination at Kansas City convention.
1987 Hungerford Massacre in the UK; armed with semi-automatic rifles and a handgun Michael Ryan kills 16 people before committing suicide. In response, Parliament passed the Firearms (Amendment) Act of 1988 banning ownership of certain classes of firearms.
1988 Cease fire begins in 8-year war between Iran and Iraq.
1991 Communist hard-liners place President Mikhail Gorbachev under house arrest in an attempted coup that failed two days later.
2002 A Russian Mi-26 helicopter carrying troops is hit by a Chechen missile outside of Grozny, killing 118 soldiers.
2003 Shmuel Hanavi bus bombing: suicide attack on a bus in Jerusalem kills 23 Israelis, some of them children, and wounds 130. Islamist militant group Hamas claims responsibility for the attack.
2004 Google Inc. stock begins selling on the Nasdaq Stock Market, with an initial price of $85; the stock ended the day at $100.34 with more than 22 million shares traded.
2005 Toronto Supercell: A series of thunderstorms spawn several tornadoes and cause flash floods in Southern Ontario. Losses exceed $500 million Canadian dollars, the highest ever in the province.
2010 Operation Iraqi Freedom ends; the last US combat brigade, 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, leaves the country. Six brigades remain to train Iraqi troops.

Born on August 19

1870 Bernard Baruch, U.S. representative to the U.N. Atomic Energy Commission.
1871 Orville Wright, aviation pioneer.
1883 Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, fashion designer.
1902 Ogden Nash, humorist.
1919 Malcolm Forbes, publisher of Forbes magazine.
1921 Gene Roddenberry, television writer and producer, best known for the series Star Trek.
1931 Willie Shoemaker, record-setting jockey (won 8,833 of 40,350 starts); received Mike Venezia Memorial Award for "extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship" in 1990.
1940 Jill St John, (Jill Arlyn Oppenheim), Los Angeles California, actress (Diamonds are Forever).
1942 Fred Thompson, US Senator (R-Tenn); minority counsel on Senate Watergate Committee, lobbyist; actor (Law and Order)).
1945 William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton, 42nd President of the United States (1993-2001); first president from the Baby Boomer generation.
1948 Tipper Gore, wife of US Vice President Al Gore (1993-2001); co-founder, Parents Music Resource Center, which lobbied to have parental advisory labels placed on the packaging of music containing violent, sexual or drug-use lyrics.
1952 Jonathan Frakes, actor (Commander William T Riker, Star Trek: The Next Generation); character given same birthdate but in 2335.
1966 Lee Ann Womack, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter ("I Hope You Dance").

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Today in History
August 20

917 A Byzantine counter-offensive is routed by Syeon at Anchialus, Bulgaria.
1619 The first group of twenty Africans is brought to Jamestown, Virginia.
1667 John Milton publishes Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the fall of Adam and Eve.
1741 Danish navigator Vitus Jonas Bering, commisioned by Peter the Great of Russia to find land connecting Asia and North America, discovers America.
1794 American General "Mad Anthony" Wayne defeats the Ohio Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in the Northwest territory, ending Indian resistance in the area.
1847 General Winfield Scott wins the battle of Churubusco on his drive to Mexico City.
1904 Dublin's Abbey Theatre is founded, an outgrowth of the Irish Literary Theatre founded in 1899 by William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory.
1908 The American Great White Fleet arrives in Sydney, Australia, to a warm welcome.
1913 700 feet above Buc, France, parachutist Adolphe Pegond becomes the first person to jump from an airplane and land safely.
1914 Russia wins an early victory over Germany at Gumbinnen.
1940 After a previous machine gun attack failed, exiled Russian Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico City, with an alpine ax to the back of the head.
1940 Radar is used for the first time, by the British during the Battle of Britain. Also on this day, in a radio broadcast, Winston Churchill makes his famous homage to the Royal Air Force: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
1941 Adolf Hitler authorizes the development of the V-2 missile.
1944 United States and British forces close the pincers on German units in the Falaise-Argentan pocket in France.
1953 USSR publicly acknowledges it tested a hydrogen bomb eight days earlier.
1955 Hundreds killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
1960 USSR recovers 2 dogs, Belka and Strelka, the first animals to be launched into orbit and returned alive (Sputnik 5).
1961 East Germany begins erecting a wall along western border to replace barbed wire put up Aug 13; US 1st Battle Group, 18th Infantry Division arrives in West Berlin.
1964 US President Lyndon Baines Johnson signs the Economic Opportunity Act, an anti-poverty measure totaling nearly $1 billion, as part of his War on Poverty.
1968 Some 650,000 Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia to quell reformers there.
1971 The Cambodian military launches a series of operations against the Khmer Rouge.
1974 US Vice President Gerald Ford, who had replaced Spiro Agnew, assumes the Office of the President after Richard Nixon resigns; Ford names Nelson Rockefeller as VP.
1978 NASA launches Viking 1; with Viking 2, launched a few days later, provided high-resolution mapping of Mars, revolutionizing existing views of the planets.
1979 The Penmanshiel Diversion on the the East Coast Main Line rail route between England and Scotland opens, replacing the 134-year-old Penmanshiel Tunnel that had collapsed in March.
1980 UN Security Council condemns Israel's declaration that all of Jersualem is its capital; vote is 14-0, with US abstaining.
1982 A multinational force including 800 US Marines lands in Beirut, Lebanon, to oversee Palestinan withdrawal during the Lebanese Civil War.
1986 Part-time mail carrier Patrick Sherrill shoots 20 fellow workers killing 14 at Edmond Okla., the first mass shooting by an individual in an office environment in the US. His actions give rise to the phrase "going postal," for sudden violent outbursts.
1990 Iraq moves Western hostages to military installations to use them as human shields against air attacks by a US-led multinational coalition.
1991 After an attempted coup in the Soviet Union, Estonia declares independence from the USSR.
1993 Secret negotiations in Norway lead to agreement on the Oslo Peace Accords, an attempt to resolve the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
1994 Miracle, the Sacred White Buffalo, born on Heider Farm near Janesville, Wisc. The first white (not albino) buffalo born since 1933, she was a important religious symbol for many US and Canadian Indian tribes.
1998 The Supreme Court of Canada rules Quebec cannot legally secede from Canada without the federal government's approval.
1998 US launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the Aug. 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
2002 A group of Iraqis opposed to the regime of Saddam Hussein seize the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin; after five hours they release their hostages and surrender.

Born on August 20

1833 Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States and grandson of President William Henry Harrison.
1886 Paul Tillich, theologian and philosopher who wrote Systematic Theology.
1890 H.P. Lovecraft, author of horror tales; created the Cthulhu mythos.
1905 Jack Teagarden, jazz trombonist.
1941 Slobodan Milocevic, President of Serbia (1989–1997) and of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1997–2000); tried by UN's International Criminal Tribunal for war crimes but died before trial concluded.
1942 Isaac Hayes, composer, musician, actor, voice-over actor; co-wrote "Soul Man," won Academy Award for his composition "Theme from Shaft."
1944 Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minster of India.
1952 John Hiatt, singer/songwriter ("Have a Little Faith in Me").
1954 Al Roker, weatherman (Today on NBC; Weather Channel).
1958 Patricia Rozema, film director, screenwriter (Mansfield Park).
1974 Amy Adams, actress; multiple nominations for Academy Awards, Golden Globe and BAFTA awards (Enchanted, The Fighter).

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Today in History
August 21

1129 The warrior Yoritomo is made Shogun without equal in Japan.
1525 Estavao Gomes returns to Portugal after failing to find a clear waterway to Asia.
1794 France surrenders the island of Corsica to the British.
1808 Napoleon Bonaparte's General Junot is defeated by Wellington at the first Battle of the Peninsular War at Vimiero, Portugal.
1831 Nat Turner leads a slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia that kills close to 60 whites.
1858 The first of a series of debates begins between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. Douglas goes on to win the Senate seat in November, but Lincoln gains national visibility for the first time.
1863 Confederate raiders under William Quantrill strike Lawrence, Kansas, leaving 150 civilians dead.
1864 Confederate General A.P. Hill attacks Union troops south of Petersburg, Va., at the Weldon railroad. His attack is repulsed, resulting in heavy Confederate casualties.
1915 Italy declares war on Turkey.
1942 U.S. Marines turn back the first major Japanese ground attack on Guadalcanal in the Battle of Tenaru.
1944 The Dumbarton Oaks conference, which lays the foundation for the establishment of the United Nations, is held in Washington, D.C.
1945 President Harry S. Truman cancels all contracts under the Lend-Lease Act.
1959 Hawaii is admitted into the Union.
1963 The South Vietnamese Army arrests over 100 Buddhist monks in Saigon.
1968 Soviet forces invade Czechoslovakia because of the country's experiments with a more liberal government.
1972 US orbiting astronomy observatory Copernicus launched.
1976 Mary Langdon in Battle, East Sussex, becomes Britain's first firewoman.
1976 Operation Paul Bunyan: after North Korean guards killed two American officers sent to trim a poplar tree along the DMZ on Aug. 18, US and ROK soldiers with heavy support chopped down the tree.
1986 In Cameroon 2,000 die from poison gas from a volcanic eruption.
1988 Ceasefire in the 8-year war between Iran and Iraq.
1989 Voyager 2 begins a flyby of planet Neptune.
1991 Communist hardliners' coup is crushed in USSR after just 2 days; Latvia declares independence from USSR.
1994 Ernesto Zedillo wins Mexico's presidential election.
1996 The new Globe theater opens in England.
2000 Tiger Woods wins golf's PGA Championship, the first golfer to win 3 majors in a calendar year since Ben Hogan in 1953.
2001 NATO decides to send a peacekeeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Born on August 21

1798 Jules Michelet, French historian who wrote the 24-volume Historie de France.
1904 William "Count" Basie, American band leader and composer.
1936 Wilt Chamberlin, four-time MVP for the National Basketball Association and only player to score 100 points in a professional basketball game.
1938 Kenny Rogers, singer, actor; one of top-selling artists of all time; voted Favorite Singer of All Time in 1986 poll.
1944 Jackie DeShannon (Sharon Lee Meyers), singer/songwriter ("Lonely Girl," "What the World Needs Now"); toured as The Beatles opening act in 1964; inducted into Songwriters Hall of Fame, 2010.
1944 Peter Weir, film director; among the leaders of Australian New Wave cinema (Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli); Academy Award nominee (Dead Poets Society, Master and Commander).
1950 Arthur Bremer, attempted assassin who shot segregationist Alabama governor George C. Wallace in May 1972.
1951 Harry Smith, TV co-anchor (The Early Show and its predecessor CBS Morning Show, 1987–96, 2002–10).
1952 Joe Strummer, lead singer of British punk band The Clash ("Rock the Casbah").
1953 Ivan Stang (Douglass St. Clair Smith), writer, Church of the SubGenius.
1954 Archie Griffin, NFL running back; only college player to win two Heisman trophies (Ohio State) and first player to start in four Rose Bowls; member, College Football Hall of Fame.
1956 Kim Cattrall, actress (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Sex in the City TV series).
1961 Stephen Hillenburg, animator and cartoonist; created character of Spongebob Squarepants.
1973 Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google.

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Today in History
August 22

1350 John II, also known as John the Good, succeeds Philip VI as king of France.
1485 Henry Tudor defeats Richard III at Bosworth. This victory establishes the Tudor dynasty in England and ends the War of the Roses.
1642 Civil war in England begins as Charles I declares war on Parliament at Nottingham.
1717 The Austrian army forces the Turkish army out of Belgrade, ending the Turkish revival in the Balkans.
1777 With the approach of General Benedict Arnold's army, British Colonel Barry St. Ledger abandons Fort Stanwix and returns to Canada.
1849 The Portuguese governor of Macao, China, is assassinated because of his anti-Chinese policies.
1911 The Mona Lisa, the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, is stolen from the Louvre in Paris, where it had hung for more than 100 years. It is recovered in 1913.
1922 Michael Collins, Irish politician, is killed in an ambush.
1942 Brazil declares war on the Axis powers. She is the only South American country to send combat troops into Europe.
1945 Soviet troops land at Port Arthur and Dairen on the Kwantung Peninsula in China.
1945 Conflict in Vietnam begins when a group of Free French parachute into southern Indochina, in repsonse to a successful coup by communist guerilla Ho Chi Minh.
1952 Devil's Island's penal colony is permanently closed.
1956 Incumbent US President Dwight D. Eisenhower & Vice President Richard Nixon renominated by Republican convention in San Francisco.
1962 OAS (Secret Army Organization) gunmen unsuccessfully attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle; the incident inspires Frederick Forsyth's novel, The Day of the Jackal.
1962 The world's first nuclear-powered passenger-cargo ship, NS Savannah, completes its maiden voyage from Yorktown, Va., to Savannah, Ga.
1968 First papal visit to Latin America; Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogota.
1969 Hurricane Camille hits US Gulf Coast, killing 256 and causing $1.421 billion in damages.
1971 Bolivian military coup: Col. Hugo Banzer Suarez ousts leftist president, Gen. Juan Jose Torres and assumes power.
1971 FBI arrests members of The Camden 28, an anti-war group, as the group is raiding a draft office in Camden, NJ.
1972 International Olympic Committee votes 36–31 with 3 abstentions to ban Rhodesia from the games because of the country's racist policies.
1975 US president Gerald Ford survives second assassination attempt in 17 days, this one by Sarah Jane Moore in San Francisco, Cal.
1983 Benigno Aquino, the only real opposition on Ferdinand Marcos' reign as president of the Philippines, is gunned down at Manila Airport.
1989 First complete ring around Neptune discovered.
1995 During 11-day siege at at Ruby Ridge, Id., FBI HRT sniper Lon Horiuchi kills Vicki Weaver while shooting at another target.
2003 Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore suspended for refusing to comply with federal court order to remove the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Supreme Court building's lobby.
2005 Art heist: a version of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway.
2007 Most runs scored by any team in modern MLB history as the Texas Rangers thump the Baltimore Orioles 30-3.

Born on August 22

1647 Denis Papin, inventor of the pressure cooker.
1880 George Herriman, cartoonist, creator of Krazy Kat.
1891 Jacque Lipchitz, sculptor.
1893 Dorothy Parker, poet, satirist and founding member of the Algonquin Round Table.
1904 Deng Xiaoping, Chinese leader from 1977 to 1987, held nominal leadership position until his death in 1997.
1908 Henri Cartier-Bresson, photographer.
1917 John Lee Hooker, blues singer and guitarist.
1920 Ray Bradbury, science fiction writer whose works include Farenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles.
1934 H. Norman Schwarzkopf, American general and commander of the coalition forces during the Persian Gulf War.
1935 Annie Proulx, Pulitzer Prize–winning author (The Shipping News).
1938 Delmar Allen "Dale" Hawkins, pioneer rockabilly singer/songwriter ("Suzy Q").
1939 Valerie Harper, actress (Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda).
1940 Antony Crosthwaite-Eyre, English publisher.
1942 Kathy Lennon, singer, member of the Lennon Sisters.
1943 Masatoshi Shima, Japanese computer scientist who helped develop the Intel 4004, the world's first commercial microprocessor.
1947 Donna Godchaux, singer with The Grateful Dead and Heart of Gold Band.
1950 I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, White House Chief of Staff under Pres. George W. Bush.
1968 Rich Lowry, editor of National Review.
1970 Giada De Laurentiis, chef and television host.
1986 Kelko Kitagawa, Japanese model and actress (Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift).

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August 24
79 Mount Vesuvius erupts destroying Pompeii, Stabiae, Herculaneum and other smaller settlements.
410 German barbarians sack Rome.
1542 In South America, Gonzalo Pizarro returns to the mouth of the Amazon River after having sailed the length of the great river as far as the Andes Mountains.
1572 Some 50,000 people are put to death in the 'Massacre of St. Bartholomew' as Charles IX of France attempts to rid the country of Huguenots.
1780 King Louis XVI abolishes torture as a means to get suspects to confess.
1814 British troops under General Robert Ross capture Washington, D.C., which they set on fire in retaliation for the American burning of the parliament building in York (Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada.
1847 Charlotte Bronte, using the pseudonym Currer Bell, sends a manuscript of Jane Eyre to her publisher in London.
1869 Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, New York, patents the waffle iron.
1891 Thomas Edison files a patent for the motion picture camera.
1894 Congress passes the first graduated income tax law, which is declared unconstitutional the next year.
1896 Thomas Brooks is shot and killed by an unknown assailant begining a six year feud with the McFarland family.
1912 By an act of Congress, Alaska is given a territorial legislature of two houses.
1942 In the battle of the Eastern Solomons, the third carrier-versus-carrier battle of the war, U.S. naval forces defeat a Japanese force attempting to screen reinforcements for the Guadalcanal fighting.
1948 Edith Mae Irby becomes the first African-American student to attend the University of Arkansas.
1954 Congress outlaws the Communist Party in the United States.
1963 US State Department cables embassy in Saigon that if South Vietnam's president Ngo Dinh Diem does not remove his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu as his political adviser the US would explore alternative leadership, setting the stage for a coup by ARVN generals.
1975 The principal leaders of Greece's 1967 coup—Georgios Papadopoulos, Stylianos Pattakos, and Nikolaos Maarezos—sentenced to death for high treason, later commuted to life in prison.
1981 Mark David Chapman sentenced to 20 years to life for murdering former Beatles band member John Lennon.
1989 Colombian drug lords declare "total and absolute war" on Colombia's government, booming the offices of two political parties and burning two politicians' homes.
1989 Baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti bans Pete Rose from baseball for gambling.
1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Comunist Party of the Soviet Union; Ukraine declares its independence from USSR.
1992 Hurricane Andrew makes landfall in Florida. The Category 5 storm, which had already caused extensive damage in the Bahamas, caused $26.5 billion in US damages, caused 65 deaths, and felled 70,000 acres of trees in the Everglades.
1994 Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) create initial accord regarding partial self-rule for Palestinians living on the West Bank, the Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities.
2004 Chechnyan suicide bombers blow up two airliners near Moscow, killing 89 passengers.
2006 Pluto is downgraded to a dwarf planet when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines "planet."
2010 The Mexican criminal syndicate Los Zetas kills 72 illegal immigrants from Central and South America in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Born on August 24

1810 Theodore Parker, anti-slavery movement leader.
1890 Jean Rhys, writer (Wild Sargasso Sea).
1895 Richard Cushing, the director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
1898 Malcolm Cowley, poet, translator, literary critic and social historian.
1899 Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (Ficciones).
1905 Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, blues singer, a major influence on Elvis Presley.
1915 Alice H.B. Sheldon, science fiction writer and artist, CIA photo-intelligence operative, lecturer at American University and major in the U.S. Army Air Force.
1929 Yasir Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Movement.
1951 Oscar Hijeulos, novelist (The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love).
1960 Calvin "Cal" Ripken, Jr., shortstop and third baseman for Baltimore Orioles (1981–2001) who broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played.
1963 Hideo Kojima, creator and director of video games (Metal Gear series).
1965 Reginald "Reggie" Miller, professional basketball player who set record for most career 3-point field goals (later superseded by Ray Allen); Olympic gold medalist.
1973 Grey DeLisle-Griffin, voice-over actress in animated TV shows (The Fairly OddParents) and video games (Diablo III).
2003 Alexandre Coste, son of Albert II, Prince of Monaco, and former air stewardess Nicole Coste.

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Today in History
August 26

1017 Turks defeat the Byzantine army under Emperor Romanus IV at Manikert, Eastern Turkey.
1429 Joan of Arc makes a triumphant entry into Paris.
1789 The Constituent Assembly in Versailles, France, approves the final version of the Declaration of Human Rights.
1862 Confederate General Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson encircles the Union Army under General John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
1883 The Indonesian island of Krakatoa erupts in the largest explosion recorded in history, heard 2,200 miles away in Madagascar. The resulting destruction sends volcanic ash up 50 miles into the atmosphere and kills almost 36,000 people–both on the island itself and from the resulting 131-foot tidal waves that obliterate 163 villages on the shores of nearby Java and Sumatra.
1920 The 19th Amendment to the Constitution is officially ratified, giving women the right to vote.
1943 The United States recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation.
1957 Ford Motor Company reveals the Edsel, its latest luxury car.
1966 South African Defense Force troops attack a People's Liberation Army of Nambia at Omugulugwombashe, the first battle of the 22-year Namibian War of Independence.
1970 A nationwide Women's Strike for Equality, led by Betty Friedan on the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment calls attention to unequal pay and other gender inequalities in America.
1977 The National Assembly of Quebec adopts Bill 101, Charter of the French Language, making French the official language of the Canadian province.
1978 Albino Luciani elected to the Papacy and chooses the name Pope John Paul I ; his 33-day reign is among the shortest in Papal history.
1978 Sigmund Jähn becomes first German to fly in space, on board Soviet Soyuz 31.
1999 Russia begins the Second Chechen War in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade.

Born on August 26

1743 Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry who defined the role of oxygen and named it.
1874 Lee De Forest, physicist, inventor, considered the father of radio.
1875 John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir, writer and governor general of Canada, famous for his book The Thirty-Nine Steps.
1898 Peggy Guggenheim, art patron and collector.
1906 Christopher Isherwood, English novelist and playwright, author of Goodbye to Berlin, the inspiration for the play I am a Camera and the musical and film Cabaret.
1906 Albert Sabin, medical researcher, developed the polio vaccine.
1910 Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu), missionary, Nobel Prize laureate for her work in the slums of Calcutta.
1922 Irving Levine, journalist; first American television correspondent to be accredited in the Soviet Union.
1940 Donald Leroy "Don" LaFontaine, voice-over actor; recorded more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers.
1944 Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard Alexander Walter George).
1945 Tom Ridge, first US Secretary of Homeland Security.
1952 Will Shortz, American puzzle creator and editor.
1957 Nikky Finey (Lynn Carol Finney), poet; won National Book Award (Head Off & Split).
1960 Branford Marsalis, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.
1970 Melissa Ann McCarthy, comedian, writer, producer, Emmy-winning actress (Mike & Molly TV series).

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1883 The Indonesian island of Krakatoa erupts in the largest explosion recorded in history, heard 2,200 miles away in Madagascar. The resulting destruction sends volcanic ash up 50 miles into the atmosphere and kills almost 36,000 people–both on the island itself and from the resulting 131-foot tidal waves that obliterate 163 villages on the shores of nearby Java and Sumatra.

Have never quite understood why the Krakatoa damage was less than the tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004. The different population density does explain part of it, but the Boxing Day one killed people as far away as Africa. Apparently the Krakatoa tsunami had a short wavelength.

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Today in History
August 28

1676 Indian chief King Philip, also known as Metacom, is killed by English soldiers, ending the war between Indians and colonists.
1862 Mistakenly believing the Confederate Army to be in retreat, Union General John Pope attacks, beginning the Battle of Groveten. Both sides sustain heavy casualties.
1914 Three German cruisers are sunk by ships of the Royal Navy in the Battle of Heligoland Bight, the first major naval battle of World War I.
1938 The first degree given to a ventriloquist's dummy is awarded to Charlie McCarthy–Edgar Bergen's wooden partner. The honorary degree, "Master of Innuendo and Snappy Comeback," is presented on radio by Ralph Dennis, the dean of the School of Speech at Northwestern University.
1941 The German U-boat U-570 is captured by the British and renamed Graph
1944 German forces in Toulon and Marseilles, France, surrender to the Allies.
1945 Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-Tung arrives in Chunking to confer with Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek in a futile effort to avert civil war.
1963 One of the largest demonstrations in the history of the United States, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, takes place and reaches its climax at the base of the Lincoln Memorial when Dr. Martin Luther King delivers his "I have a dream" speech.
1965 The Viet Cong are routed in the Mekong Delta by U.S. forces, with more than 50 killed.
1968 Clash between police and anti-war demonstrators during Democratic Party's National Convention in Chicago.
1979 Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb explodes under bandstand in Brussels' Great Market as British Army musicians prepare for a performance; four British soldiers wounded.
1981 John Hinckley Jr. pleads innocent to attempting to assassinate Pres. Ronald Reagan.
1982 First Gay Games held, in San Francisco.
1983 Israeli's prime minister Menachem Begin announces his resignation.
1986 Bolivian president Victor Paz Estenssoro declares a state of siege and uses troops and tanks to halt a march by 10,000 striking tin miners.
1986 US Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth given 365-year prison term for spying for USSR.
1993 Two hundred twenty-three die when a dam breaks at Qinghai (Kokonor), in northwest China.
2003 Power blackout affects half-million people in southeast England and halts 60% of London's underground trains.
2005 Hurricane Katrina reaches Category 5 strength; Louisiana Superdome opened as a "refuge of last resort" in New Orleans.
2012 US Republican convention nominates Mitt Romney as the party's presidential candidate.

Born on August 28

1749 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, playwright and novelist, best known for Faust.
1774 Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph and the first U.S.-born saint.
1828 Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (War and Peace, Anna Karenina).
1882 Belle Benchley, the first female zoo director in the world, who directed the Zoological Gardens of San Diego.
1896 Liam O'Flaherty, Irish novelist and short-story writer.
1903 Bruno Bettelheim, Austrian psychologist, educator of autistic and emotionally disturbed children.
1908 Roger Tory Peterson, author of the innovative bird book A Field Guide to Birds.
1925 Donald O'Connor, entertainer (Singin' in the Rain, Anything Goes).
1939 Catherine "Cassie" Mackin, journalist; first woman to anchor an evening newscast alone on a regular basis (NBC's Sunday Night News); NBC's first woman floor reporter at a national political convention.
1943 Lou Pinelia, American League Rookie of the Year (1969); 14th-winningest manager of all time.
1948 Daniel Seraphine, drummer with the band Chicago.
1951 Wayne Osmond, singer, songwriter, TV actor (The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters).
1952 Rita Dove, poet; second African-American poet to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1987); first African-American Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1993-95); Poet Laureate of Virginia (2004-06).
1965 Shania Twain (Eilleen Regina Edwards), five-time Grammy-winning singer ("You're Still the One"); only female artist to have three consecutive Diamond albums (10 million units sold).
1971 Todd Eldredge, figure skater; Men's World Champion (1996).
1982 Leann Rimes, Grammy-winning singer ("Blue"), actress, (Northern Lights).
1986 Gilad Shalit, Israeli Defense Forces corporal kidnapped by Hamas and held for five years before being exchanged for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.
1999 Prince Nikolai of Denmark.

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Today in History
August 29

70 The Temple of Jerusalem burns after a nine-month Roman siege.
1526 Ottoman Suleiman the Magnificent crushes a Hungarian army under Lewis II at the Battle of Mohacs.
1533 In Peru, the Inca chief Atahualpa is executed by orders of Francisco Pizarro, although the chief had already paid his ransom.
1776 General George Washington retreats during the night from Long Island to New York City.
1793 Slavery is abolished in Santo Domingo.
1862 Union General John Pope's army is defeated by a smaller Confederate force at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
1882 Australia defeats England in cricket for the first time. The following day a obituary appears in the Sporting Times addressed to the British team.
1942 The American Red Cross announces that Japan has refused to allow safe conduct for the passage of ships with supplies for American prisoners of war.
1945 U.S. airborne troops are landed in transport planes at Atsugi airfield, southwest of Tokyo, beginning the occupation of Japan.
1949 USSR explodes its first atomic bomb, "First Lightning."
1950 International Olympic Committee votes to allow West Germany and Japan to compete in 1952 games.
1952 In the largest bombing raid of the Korean War, 1,403 planes of the Far East Air Force bomb Pyongyang, North Korea.
1957 US Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1957 after Strom Thurmond (Sen-D-SC) ends 24-hour filibuster, the longest in Senate history, against the bill.
1960 US U-2 spy plane spots SAM (surface-to-air) missile launch pads in Cuba.
1964 Mickey Mantle ties Babe Ruth's career strikeout record (1,330).
1965 Astronauts L. Gordon Cooper Jr. and Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr complete 120 Earth orbits in Gemini 5, marking the first time the US set an international duration record for a manned space mission.
1966 The Beatles give their last public concert (Candlestick Park, San Francisco).
1968 Democrats nominate Hubert H Humphrey for president at their Chicago convention.
1977 Lou Brock (St Louis Cardinals) breaks Ty Cobb's 49-year-old career stolen bases record at 893.
1986 Morocco's King Hassan II signs unity treaty with Libya's Muammar Gadhafi, strengthening political and economic ties and creating a mutual defense pact.
1991 USSR's parliament suspends Communist Party activities in the wake of a failed coup.
1992 Thousands of Germans demonstrate against a wave of racist attacks aimed at immigrants.
1995 NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.
2003 A terrorist bomb kills Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, and nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf where the ayatollah had called for Iraqi unity.
2005 Rains from Hurricane Katrina cause a levee breech at the Industrial Canal in New Orleans, causing severe flooding.
2012 The Egyptian Army's Operation Eagle results in the deaths of 11 suspected terrorists and the arrest of another 23.

Born on August 29

1632 John Locke, philosopher of liberalism whose ideas influenced the American founding fathers, famous for his treatise An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
1809 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., poet, essayist and father of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
1898 Preston Sturges, screenwiter, film director and playwright.
1915 Ingrid Bergman, Oscar winning actress famous whose films include Casablanca and Anastasia.
1920 Charlie "Bird" Parker, self-taught jazz saxophonist, pioneer of the new "cool" movement.
1923 Richard Attenborough, actor, (The Great Escape, Jurassic Park) Academy Award–winning director and producer (Gandhi)
1924 Dinah Washington, singer known in the 50s as "Queen of the Harlem Blues.".
1925 Donald O'Connor, dancer, actor (Singing in the Rain).
1927 Marion Williams, gospel singer.
1931 Lise Payette, Quebec politician, writer and columnist.
1933 Jehan Sadat, First Lady of Egypt (1970–1981); widow of Anwar Sadat.
1935 William Friedkin, director, producer, writer (The Exorcist, The French Connection).
1936 Future Republican US presidential nominee (2008) John McCain.
1938 Elliott Gould, actor (M*A*S*H, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice).
1940 James Brady, press secretary who was severely wounded during John Hinckley Jr.'s attempt to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan.
1941 Robin Leach, TV host (Life Styles of the Rich and Famous).
1943 Richard Halligan, vocalist with band Blood Sweat & Tears.
1952 Karen Hesse, Newbery Medal–winning author of children's literature (Out of the Dust).
1958 Michael Jackson, pop singer, entertainer.

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Today in History
August 31

1303 The War of Vespers in Sicily ends with an agreement between Charles of Valois, who invaded the country, and Frederick, the ruler of Sicily.
1756 The British at Fort William Henry, New York, surrender to Louis Montcalm of France.
1802 Captain Merriwether Lewis leaves Pittsburgh to meet up with Captain William Clark and begin their trek to the Pacific Ocean.
1864 At the Democratic convention in Chicago, General George B. McClellan is nominated for president.
1919 The Communist Labor Party is founded in Chicago, with the motto, "Workers of the world unite!"
1928 Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera opens in Berlin.
1940 Joseph Avenol steps down as Secretary-General of the League of Nations.
1942 The British army under General Bernard Law Montgomery defeats Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps in the Battle of Alam Halfa in Egypt.
1944 The British Eighth Army penetrates the German Gothic Line in Italy.
1949 Six of the 16 surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attend the last-ever encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
1951 The 1st Marine Division begins its attack on Bloody Ridge in Korea. The four-day battle results in 2,700 Marine casualties.
1961 A concrete wall replaces the barbed wire fence that separates East and West Germany, it will be called the Berlin wall.
1965 US Congress creates Department of Housing & Urban Development.
1968 The Dasht-e Bayaz 7.3 earthquake in NE Iran completely destroys five villages and severely damages six others.
1970 Lonnie McLucas convicted of torturing and murdering fellow Black Panther Party member Alex Rackley in the first of the New Haven Black Panther Trials.
1980 Polish government forced to sign Gdansk Agreement allowing creation of the trade union Solidarity.
1985 Police capture Richard Ramirez, dubbed the "Night Stalker" for a string of gruesome murders that stretched from Mission Viejo to San Francisco, Cal.
1986 A Russian cargo ship collides with cruise ship Admiral Nakhimov, killing 398.
1987 Longest mine strike in South Africa's history ends, after 11 people were killed, 500 injured and 400 arrested.
1990 East and West Germany sign the Treaty of Unification (Einigungsvertrag) to join their legal and political systems.
1990 Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr. become first father and son to play on same team simultaneously in professional baseball (Seattle Mariners).
1994 Last Russian troops leave Estonia and Latvia.
1994 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) announces a "complete cessation of military operations," opening the way to a political settlement in Ireland for the first time in a quarter of a century.
1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a Paris car crash along with her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul while fleeing paparazzi.
1997 New York Yankees retire Don Mattingly's #23 (first baseman, coach, manager).
2006 Edvard Munch's famed painting The Scream recovered by Norwegian police. The artwork had been stolen on Aug. 22, 2004.

Born on August 31

1811 Théophile Gautier, French poet, novelist and author of Art for Art's Sake.
1870 Maria Montessori, educator and founder of the Montessori schools.
1885 Duboise Heyward, novelist, poet and dramatist best know for Porgy which was the basis for the opera Porgy and Bess.
1899 Lynn Riggs, writer, her book Green Grow the Lilacs was adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein to become Oklahoma.
1903 Arthur Godfrey, radio and television personality.
1905 Sanford Meisner, influential acting teacher.
1907 Wiliam Shawn, longtime editor of The New Yorker.
1908 Wiliam Saroyan, author and playwright (The Human Comedy).
1918 Alan Jay Lerner, playwright and lyricist (Brigadoon, Camelot).
1918 Daniel Schorr, journalist.
1935 Eldridge Cleaver, political activist and author of Soul on Fire.
1936 Marva Collins, innovative educator who started Chicago's one-room school, Westside Preparatory.
1945 Van Morrison, Irish singer, songwriter.
1945 Itzhak Perlman, violinist.
1948 Lowell Ganz, screenwriter, (A League of Their Own) director, producer, actor.
1949 Richard Gere, actor (Pretty Woman, An Officer and a Gentleman).
1970 Deborah Ann "Debbie" Gibson, singer, songwriter, record producer, actress; youngest artist ever to write, produce and perform a Billboard #1 single ("Foolish Beat").
1970 Queen Rania of Jordan (nee Rania al Yassin), wife of King Abdullah II.

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Today in History

September 2
1666 The Great Fire of London, which devastates the city, begins.
1789 The Treasury Department, headed by Alexander Hamilton, is created in New York City.
1792 Verdun, France, surrenders to the Prussian Army.
1798 The Maltese people revolt against the French occupation, forcing the French troops to take refuge in the citadel of Valetta in Malta.
1870 Napoleon III capitulates to the Prussians at Sedan, France.
1885 In Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, 28 Chinese laborers are killed and hundreds more chased out of town by striking coal miners.
1898 Sir Herbert Kitchner leads the British to victory over the Mahdists at Omdurman and takes Khartoum.
1910 Alice Stebbins Wells is admitted to the Los Angeles Police Force as the first woman police officer to receive an appointment based on a civil service exam.
1915 Austro-German armies take Grodno, Poland.
1944 Troops of the U.S. First Army enter Belgium.
1945 Japan signs the document of surrender aboard the USS Missouri, ending World War II
1945 Vietnam declares its independence and Nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaims himself its first president.
1956 Tennessee National Guardsmen halt rioters protesting the admission of 12 African-Americans to schools in Clinton.
1963 Alabama Governor George Wallace calls state troopers to Tuskegee High School to prevent integration.
1963 The US gets its first half-hour TV weeknight national news broadcast when CBS Evening News expands from 15 to 30 minutes.
1970 NASA cancels two planned missions to the moon.
1975 Joseph W. Hatcher of Tallahassee, Florida, becomes the state's first African-American supreme court justice since Reconstruction.
1992 The US and Russia agree to a joint venture to build a space station.
1996 The Philippine government and Muslim rebels sign a pact, formally ending a 26-year long insurgency.
1998 Jean Paul Akayesu, former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, found guilty of nine counts of genocide by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Born on September 2
1838 Lydia Kamekeha Liliuokalani, last sovereign before annexation of Hawaii by the United States.
1850 Eugene Field, poet and journalist.
1877 Frederick Soddy, named an isotope and received 1921 Nobel prize for chemistry.
1901 Adolph Rupp, basketball coach at the University of Kentucky who achieved a record 876 victories.
1946 Dan White, politician; assassinated San Francisco mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.
1948 Christa McAuliffe, the first civilian passenger on a space mission. During that mission, she and the six other crew members on the space shuttle Challenger perished in an explosion shortly after launch.
1948 Terry Bradshaw, athlete, TV sports analyst, actor; first quarterback to win four Super Bowls (Pittsburgh Steelers); Pro Football Hall of Fame.
1951 Mark Harmon, actor (St. Elsewhere, NCIS TV series).
1952 Jimmy Connors, former World No. 1 tennis player; reached more Grand Slam quarterfinals than any other male.
1964 Keanu Reeves, actor (Speed, The Matrix trilogy).

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Today in History

September 3
1189 After the death of Henry II, Richard Lionheart is crowned king of England.
1260 Mamelukes under Sultan Qutuz defeat Mongols and Crusaders at Ain Jalut.
1346 Edward III of England begins the siege of Calais, along the coast of France.
1650 The English under Cromwell defeat a superior Scottish army under David Leslie at the Battle of Dunbar.
1777 The American flag (stars & stripes), approved by Congress on June 14th, is carried into battle for the first time by a force under General William Maxwell.
1783 The Treaty of Paris is signed by Great Britain and the new United States, formally bringing the American Revolution to an end.
1838 Frederick Douglass escapes slavery disguised as a sailor. He would later write The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, his memoirs about slave life.
1855 General William Harney defeats Little Thunder's Brule Sioux at the Battle of Blue Water in Nebraska.
1895 The first professional American football game is played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania between the Latrobe Young Men's Christian Association and the Jeannette Athletic Club. Latrobe wins 12-0.
1914 The French capital is moved from Paris to Bordeaux as the Battle of the Marne begins.
1916 The German Somme front is broken by an Allied offensive.
1918 The United States recognizes the nation of Czechoslovakia.
1939 After Germany ignores Great Britain's ultimatum to stop the invasion of Poland, Great Britain declares war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II in Europe.
1939 The British passenger ship Athenia is sunk by a German submarine in the Atlantic, with 30 Americans among those killed. American Secretary of State Cordell Hull warns Americans to avoid travel to Europe unless absolutely necessary.
1943 British troops invade Italy, landing at Calabria.
1944 The U.S. Seventh Army captures Lyons, France.
1945 General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the Japanese commander of the Philippines, surrenders to Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright at Baguio.
1967 Lieutenant General Ngyuen Van Thieu is elected president of South Vietnam.
1969 Ho Chi Minh, the leader of North Vietnam, dies.
1976 The unmanned US spacecraft Viking 2 lands on Mars, takes first close-up, color photos of the planet's surface.
1981 Egypt arrests some 1,500 opponents of the government.
1989 US begins shipping military aircraft and weapons to Columbia for use against that country's drug lords.
1994 Russia and China sign a demarcation agreement to end dispute over a stretch of their border and agree they will no longer target each other with nuclear weapons.
2001 Protestant loyalists in Belfast, Ireland, begin an 11-week picket of the Holy Cross Catholic school for girls, sparking rioting.

Born on September 3

1849 Sarah Orne Jewett, author (Tales of New England, The Country of the Pointed Firs).
1856 Louis H. Sullivan, architect who gained fame for his design of the Chicago Auditorium Theater.
1875 Ferdinand Porsche, automotive engineer, designer of the Volkswagen in 1934 and the Porsche sports car in 1950.
1894 Richard Niebuhr, theologian.
1907 Carl Anderson, physicist and 1936 Nobel prize winner for his discovery of the positron.
1914 Dixie Lee Ray, Chair of the Atomic Energy Commission who received the U.N. Peace Prize in 1977.
1927 Hugh Sidey, news correspondent and author of John F. Kennedy, President.
1931 Albert Henry DeSalvo, a serial killer and rapist known as the "Boston Strangler"; though he confessed to 13 murders, debate continues over which crimes he actually committed.
1932 Eileen Brennan, actress; won Golden Globe and Emmy for her role in the TV adaptation of Private Benjamin.
1942 Alan Charles "Al" Jardine, musician, composer, vocalist, member of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; founding member of the band The Beach Boys.
1949 Petros VII (Petros Papapetrou), Greek Orthodox Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa (1997–2004).
1964 Adam Curry, co-founder of Mevio, Inc., Internet entertainment company.
1965 Charlie Sheen (Carlos Irwin Estevez), actor (Platoon, Two and a Half Men TV series).
1976 Ashley Jones, actress (True Blood and The Young and the Restless TV series).
1981 Fearne Cotton, English radio and television presenter.

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Today in History

September 5
1666 The Fire of London is extinguished after two days.
1664 After days of negotiation, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam surrenders to the British, who will rename it New York.
1792 Maximilien Robespierre is elected to the National Convention in France.
1804 In a daring night raid, American sailors under Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, board the captured USS Philadelphia and burn the ship to keep it out of the hands of the Barbary pirates who captured her.
1816 Louis XVIII of France dissolves the chamber of deputies, which has been challenging his authority.
1859 Harriot E. Wilson's Our Nig, is published, the first U.S. novel by an African American woman.
1867 The first shipment of cattle leaves Abilene, Kansas, on a Union Pacific train headed to Chicago.
1870 Author Victor Hugo returns to Paris from the Isle of Guernsey where he had lived in exile for almost 20 years.
1877 The great Sioux warrior Crazy Horse is fatally bayoneted at age 36 by a soldier at Fort Robinson, Nebraska.
1878 Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Bill Tilghman and Clay Allison, four of the West's most famous gunmen, meet in Dodge City, Kansas.
1905 The Russian-Japanese War ends as representatives of the combating empires, meeting in New Hampshire, sign the Treaty of Portsmouth. Japan achieves virtually all of its original war aims.
1910 Marie Curie demonstrates the transformation of radium ore to metal at the Academy of Sciences in France.
1944 Germany launches its first V-2 missile at Paris, France.
1958 Martin Luther King is arrested in an Alabama protest for loitering and fined $14 for refusing to obey police.
1960 Leopold Sedar Sengingor, poet and politician, is elected president of Senegal, Africa.
1969 Charges brought against US lieutenant William Calley in the March 1968 My Lai Massacre during Vietnam War.
1972 "Black September," a Palestinian terrorist group take 11 Israeli athletes hostage at the Olympic Games in Munich.
1975 President Gerald Ford evades an assassination attempt in Sacramento, California.
1977 Hanns-Martin Schleyer, a German business executive who headed to powerful organization and had been an SS officer during WW2, is abducted by the left-wing extremist group Red Army Faction, who execute him on Oct. 18.
1977 Voyager 1 space probe launched.
1978 Israel's Menachem Begin and Egypt's Anwar Sadat begin discussions on a peace process, at Camp David, Md.
1980 World's longest tunnel opens; Switzerland's St. Gotthard Tunnel stretches 10.14 miles (16.224 km) from Goschenen to Airolo.
1984 Space Shuttle Discovery lands afters its maiden voyage.
1996 Hurricane Fran comes ashore near Cape Fear, No. Car. It will kill 27 people and cause more than $3 billion in damage.


Born on September 5

1568 Tommasso Campanella, Italian philosopher and poet, who wrote City of the Sun.
1638 Louis XIV, "The Sun King" of France who built the palace at Versailles.
1842 Jesse James, legendary outlaw of the American West.
1897 A.C. Nielson, founder of the Nielson Ratings.
1905 Arthur Koestler, Hungarian novelist and essayist who wrote about communism in Darkness at Noon and The Ghost in the Machine.
1912 John Cage, inventive composer, writer, philosopher, and artist.
1912 Franklin "Frank" Thomas, one of the "Nine Old Men" among Walt Disney's team of animators.
1921 Jack Valenti, an American film executive who created the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) voluntary system for rating film content as a guide for parents.
1929 Bob Newhart, deadpan standup comedian and TV actor (The Bob Newhart Show).
1934 Carol Lawrence, actress and singer (Maria in Broadway version of West Side Story).
1940 Raquel Welch, actress (One Million Years B.C., Myra Breckinridge).
1942 Werner Herzog (Stipetic), director, producer, screenwriter, actor; a leading figure in New German Cinema (Heart of Glass, Encounters at the End of the World).
1945 Al Stewart, singer, songwriter, musician ("Year of the Cat," "Roads to Moscow").
1950 Cathy Guisewite, cartoonist, creator of Cathy.
1953 Victor Davis Hanson, military historian, columnist; received National Humanities Award (2007).
1989 Katerina Graham, actress, model, singer, dancer (The Vampire Diaries TV series).

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Today in History

September 6
394 Theodosius becomes sole ruler of Italy after defeating Eugenius at the Battle of the River Frigidus.
1422 Sultan Murat II ends a vain siege of Constantinople.
1522 One of the five ships that set out in Ferdinand Magellan's trip around the world makes it back to Spain. Only 15 of the original 265 men that set out survived. Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.
1688 Imperial troops defeat the Turks and take Belgrade, Serbia.
1793 French General Jean Houchard and his 40,000 men begin a three-day battle against an Anglo-Hanoveraian army at Hondschoote, southwest Belgium, in the wars of the French Revolution.
1847 Henry David Thoreau leaves Walden Pond and moves back into town, to Concord, Massachusetts.
1861 Union General Ulysses S. Grant's forces capture Paducah, Kentucky from Confederate forces.
1870 The last British troops to serve in Austria are withdrawn.
1901 President William McKinley is shot while attending a reception at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, by 28-year-old anarchist Leon Czolgosz. McKinley dies eight days later, the third American president assassinated.
1907 The luxury liner Lusitania leaves London for New York on her maiden voyage.
1918 The German Army begins a general retreat across the Aisne, with British troops in pursuit.
1936 Aviator Beryl Markham flies the first east-to-west solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
1937 The Soviet Union accuses Italy of torpedoing two Russian ships in the Mediterranean.
1941 Germany announces that all Jews living in the country will have to begin wearing a Star of David.
1943 The United States asks the Chinese Nationals to join with the Communists to present a common front to the Japanese.
1953 The last American and Korean prisoners are exchanged in Operation Big Switch, the last official act of the Korean War.
1965 Indian troops invade Lahore; Pakistan paratroopers raid Punjab.
1972 The world learns an earlier announcement that all Israeli athletes taken hostage at the Munich Olympics had been rescued was erroneous; all had killed by their captors from the Black September terrorist group; all but 3 terrorists also died in shootout around midnight.
1976 A Soviet pilot lands his MIG-25 in Tokyo and asks for political asylum in the United States.
1976 Lieutenant Viktor Belenko, a Soviet air force pilot defects, flying a MiG-25 jet fighter to Japan and requesting political asylum in US.
1988 Lee Roy Young becomes the first African-American Texas Ranger in the force's 165-year history.
1991 USSR officially recognizes independence for the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
1991 Leningrad, second-largest city in the USSR, is changed to Saint Petersburg, which had been the city's name prior to 1924.
1995 Baltimore Orioles' Cal Ripken Jr. plays in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking a 56-year MLB record held by Lou Gehrig; in 2007 fans voted this achievement the most memorable moment in MLB history.
1997 Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales: over 1 million people line London's streets to honor her and 2.5 billion watched the event on TV.

Born on September 6

1757 Marie Joseph du Motier, Marquis de LaFayette, French soldier and statesman who aided George Washington during the American Revolution.
1766 John Dalton, English scientist who developed the atomic theory of matter.
1800 Catherine Esther Beecher, educator who promoted higher education for women.
1860 Jane Adams, known for her work as a social reformer, pacifist, and founder of Hull House in Chicago in 1889, first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1931).
1899 Billy Rose, songwriter famous for "It's Only a Paper Moon," and "Me and My Shadow".
1928 Robert Pirzig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
1930 Charles Foley, game designer; co-creator of Twister game.
1937 Sergio Aragones, illustrator and writer; best known for his contributions to Mad Magazine and for creating the Groo the Wanderer comic book series.
1939 Susumu Tonegawa, Japanese scientist; won Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1987) for discovery of genetic mechanism that produces antibody diversity.
1943 Sir Richard J. Roberts, English scientist; shared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1993) for discovery of split genes.
1944 Swoosie Kurtz, Tony and Emmy award–winning actress (Fifth of July, And the Band Played On).
1958 Jeff Foxworth, comedian, actor; best known for his comedy routine, "You might be a redneck if . . . ".
1962 Chris Christie, 55th governor of New Jersey.
1964 Rosa Maria "Rosie" Perez, actress (Fearless), director, choreographer, Puerto Rican rights activist.
1965 Christopher Nolan, Irish poet and author; received Whitbread Book Award (1988), Honorary Doctorate of Letters (UK), Medal of Excellence (United Nations Society of Writers) and was named Person of the Year in Ireland (1988).
2006 Prince Hisahito of Akishino, third in line to become Emperor of Japan.

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Today in History

September 7
1571 At the Battle of Lepanto in the Mediterranean Sea, the Christian galley fleet destroys the Turkish galley fleet.
1630 The town of Trimontaine, in Massachusetts, is renamed Boston, and becomes the state capital.
1701 England, Austria, and the Netherlands form an Alliance against France.
1778 Shawnee Indians attack and lay siege to Boonesborough, Kentucky.
1812 On the road to Moscow, Napoleon wins a costly victory over the Russians at Borodino.
1813 The earliest known printed reference to the United States by the nickname "Uncle Sam" occurs in the Troy Post.
1864 Union General Phil Sheridan's troops skirmish with the Confederates under Jubal Early outside Winchester, Virginia.
1876 The James-Younger gang botches an attempt to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota.
1888 An incubator is used for the first time on a premature infant.
1892 The first heavyweight-title boxing match fought with gloves under Marquis of Queensbury rules ends when James J. Corbett knocks out John L. Sullivan in the 21st round.
1912 French aviator Roland Garros sets an altitude record of 13,200 feet.
1916 The U.S. Congress passes the Workman's Compensation Act.
1940 Germany's blitz against London begins during the Battle of Britain.
1942 The Red Army pushes back the German line northwest of Stalingrad.
1953 Nikita Krushchev elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1954 Integration of public schools begins in Washington D.C. and Maryland.
1965 Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio.
1970 Jockey Blll Shoemaker earns 6,033rd win, breaking Johnny Longden's record for most lifetime wins; Shoemaker's record would stand for 29 years.
1977 Panama and US sign Torrios-Carter Treaties to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the US to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
1978 Secret police agent Francesco Giullino assassinates Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London by firing a ricin pellet from a specially designed umbrella.
1979 ESPN, the Entertainment and Sports Programig Network, debuts.
1986 Desmond Tutu becomes first black leader of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of South Africa).
1988 Pilot and cosmonaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan to travel to outer space, returns to earth after 9 days aboard the Soviet space station Mir.
2004 Hurricane Ivan damages 90% of buildings on the island of Grenada; 39 die in the Category 5 storm.
2008 US Government assumes conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the country's two largest mortgage financing companies, during the subprime mortgage crisis.


Born on September 7

1533 Elizabeth I, Queen of England (1558-1603), led her country during the exploration of the New World and war with Spain.
1860 Anna Marie Robertson (Grandma Moses), American folk painter who started her career at age 78, best known for her paintings of rural life.
1860 Edith Sitwell, poet.
1900 Taylor Caldwell, novelist.
1909 Elia Kazan, producer, screenwriter and director who won directing Oscars for Gentleman's Agreement and On the Waterfront.
1914 James Alfred Van Allen, discovered and named the two radiation belts surrounding the Earth.
1930 Sonny Rollins, saxophonist.
1936 Buddy Holly, singer, songwriter, rock 'n roll pioneer.
1943 Beverley McLachlin, first woman to serve as Chief Justice of Canada.
1949 Gloria Gaynor, Grammy Award–winning singer ("I Will Survive").
1950 Julie Kavner, Emmy Award–winning actress (Rhoda, 1968) and voice actress (The Simpsons, 1992); best known as the voice of Marge Simpson in The Simpsons.
1950 Margaret "Peggy" Noonan, author, The Wall Street Journal columnist; special assistant to President Ronald Reagan.
1956 Michael Feinstein, singer, musician; archivist for Great American Songbook.